Thousands of disabled New Yorkers could be forced into hospitals and nursing homes due to the pro-government overhaul of Gov. Kathy Hochul, whose Empire State's $9 billion home care system has stagnated, providers warn.
The New York Health Plan Association and other groups have sounded warnings that after the inflated rollout of plans to integrate the payroll services of the state's Elders and Home Care-focused Consumer Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP), the Hochul administration has only had days to act to avoid major disruptions.
“In the worst case, many CDPAP consumer care alternatives will be hospitals or nursing homes, even if capacity is present,” the group wrote in a letter to the Ministry of Health on February 21, obtained by the Post.
“We urge our department to develop a contingency plan that is ready to be implemented by the end of February, and to avoid massive disruption.” The group blasted the overhaul with a delayed schedule towards the April 1 deadline.
Hochul uses hundreds of around 700 companies to move to a company of choice, Public Partnerships LLC or PPL in one hand, paying people to care for their older relatives.
However, companies claim that many problems occurred at the start of the process. This says Hochul will save $500 million.
Intermediaries who stand to lose business from Hochul's transition argue that people could be forced into nursing homes if they go through the process of signing up for a new statewide company for several months.
Even if warnings from managed care plans are wary, they still carry considerable weight as DOH states that members need to ensure that they receive qualified care and ensure that home care workers are paid.
Letters, plans and organizations argue.
They refer to “least millions of dollars” to PPL, “little recourse” to recover progress when the company has financial challenges without a timeline for repayment. Data shows that, despite the approximately six weeks left until the April 1 deadline, only 10% of the approximately 280,000 people who received care under CDPAP have moved. Consumers face call centre waiting times of 30-45 minutes. The plan is invited to weekly calls between DOH and PPL, but is not allowed to speak. The plan retrieves tinsel data from the PPL on who has moved from previous fiscal intermediaries.
PPL recently lost his contract after working the same job in New Jersey.
DOH also prepaid its own $40 million payment to the company, the Post learned.
A PPL spokesman denied most of the letter's requests and said plans were on track due to the April 1 deadline.
The company rebutted that the plan did not support the company's funds, but pointed out that there is an arrangement that PPL must proceed with funds to pay caregivers until 2026.
PPL also claims that 57,000 consumers (about 20%) are moving.
However, a spokesman for PPL did not deny that people receiving care that does not transition to PPL by the deadline would lose their care, but said “there is no change in consumer CDPAP eligibility.”
The PPL and the state portray criticism from intermediaries seeking to derail the transition. As New York Focus reported earlier this month, in 2024, a group representing mid-letter companies spent more than $10 million.
The DOH allocated at least $2 million in taxpayer money to its own advertising campaign, the post learned.
“New York's CDPAP reforms protected consumers and ultimately ended years of runaway costs, including a $68 million Medicaid fraud scheme and a hundred million dollar taxpayer fund, lost to more than 600 administrative middlemen.”
Last year, the post revealed that the powerful Healthcare Union 1199SEIU had sought a prior agreement to clarify how to unify 300,000 home health aides working at CDPAP.
Doing so could prove to the union's millions of dollars. This claims to be part of the efforts that critics will make to rig bids for the PPL.
